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White House Recruits Celebrities' Moms to Pitch Obamacare (Video)

In a video released Friday morning, the mothers of Jonah Hill, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine and Jennifer Lopez urge young Americans to register for healthcare before the March 31 deadline.

Struggling to get young adults to sign up for Obamacare before the March 31 deadline, the White House is now turning to a group with perhaps the most influence over the country's youth -- their moms.

The Obama Administration on Friday morning launched the YourMomCares campaign with a new online video featuring the real moms of artists Jonah Hill, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine and Jennifer Lopez. The 1:51 minute spot was produced by New York City ad agency Droga5.

The video, posted on YouTube, begins with the celebrities' moms recalling their sons and daughters when they were kids. Jonah was a prankster. Keys could play a song after hearing it only once. Lopez walked at eight months and was climbing out of her crib when she was a year old. "At one point I thought, 'Maybe she should be a gymnast,' " said Lopez's mom, Guadalupe Rodriguez.

Then the moms deliver their pitch -- mostly with humor and, well, guilt.

"Trust me, us moms put up with a lot," said Hill's mom, Sharon Feldstein. "But one thing we should never have to put up with is our kid not having health care."

The YourMomCares video is the second major celebrity-based initiative launched this week to encourage the nation's youth to sign up for the Affordable Care Act. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama appeared alongside Zach Galifianakis on his Funny or Die interview show, Between Two Ferns. The video quickly went viral and visits to the HealthCare.gov site spiked by 40 percent.

"Since celebrity is the lingua franca of the land, we chose moms with famous kids, a more humanizing and universal approach than simply relying on the stars themselves," said Andrew Essex of Droga5. "The result is a unique series of films featuring the real moms of Jonah Hill, Alicia Keys, Adam Levine and Jennifer Lopez, all strong advocates that everyone's kids should get covered."

Essex said Droga5 began the process by looking at why some young people had failed to embrace the Affordable Care Act. "It became clear to us that there were several difficulties in convincing youth to enroll," he said. "For starters, young people think they are invincible and impervious to injury. Young people also consider any long-term expenditure on their health, no matter how small, to subtract from the immediacy of more pleasurable purchases. And young people often distrust the government, no matter how sincere its intentions.

"It became clear to us that there was only one cohort that kids listen to: their moms," Essex said. "Mothers transcend politics, geography, socio-economic status -- even one's sense of invincibility. Since year one, mothers have been everyone's original health care provider. Moms care. And moms add a little common sense into the conversation."

The YourMomCares spot ends with Michelle Obama looking into the camera. She says: "We nag you because we love you."